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Educational Activities is developing the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program in IEEE. EPICS in IEEE, which was conceived and championed by IEEE 2007 President Leah Jamieson, is a program that organizes university and high-school students to work on engineering-related projects for local humanitarian organizations.

The purpose of the EPICS in IEEE program is to further incorporate EPICS into IEEE worldwide, by empowering student branches and IEEE GOLD groups to work with high school students on EPICS community service-related engineering projects, and by institutionalizing the program within IEEE. Through this worldwide expansion, Educational Activities will build a mechanism for sustaining and disseminating the EPICS model to other sections.

The desired outcomes of EPICS in IEEE include:

The establishment of a relationship between the student branches in participating sections, a local high school (or schools), and charitable, communal or humanitarian organizations in each venue. The relationship will focus on development, by university and high school student teams, of devices and systems for the benefit of the target audiences of the communal organizations.

The development of training workshops to train local section champions to establish an EPICS-site in their IEEE sections using local volunteers and resources. These section champions, and the volunteers they train, will be empowered to disseminate the model further, locally and to other sections.

Working with the EPICS program at Purdue, Educational Activities will create a program that will impact communities around the world with the objective to:

increase high school student interest in pursuing an engineering-related career path;

leverage the EPICS in IEEE program demonstrated ability to reach female and under-represented minority students, to increase IEEE recruitment in these demographics.

The EPICS in IEEE program is now accepting applications. EPICS in IEEE awards grants to university student groups to work on socially innovative projects that may address local community-service needs such as access and abilities, education and outreach, environment, and human services. Projects must be submitted by an IEEE member and involve a non-profit organization partner. Collaboration with a local high school is also encouraged. Typical awards use IEEE funding for project related supplies (as opposed to personnel costs) with award amounts in the US$5,000 to US$10,000 range.

There is no deadline for applications. Applications are accepted throughout the year on a rolling basis. Apply today and help impact your community.